This is the start of a new year. What better time to look at what you’d like to achieve in your practice for in the future, and what better way to focus yourself than to choose one area of your practice and take some action on that.

Today, we’ll look at Knowing Your Therapy Practice.

Knowing Your Therapy Practice

If I asked you about your practice, I wonder how much you know about the business aspects of it? And what steps could you take to get to know your practice better? Here are some thoughts:

1. Actively seek out feedback from clients or referrers:

When clients are finishing, ask them what worked and what didn’t work for them, where their expectations were met or not, what might they have liked to be different

Review the work you’re doing with existing clients, ask how the process is working for them, is it what they were expecting or wanting

Talk to doctors or others who send you work, find out what they see, what their clients have said about the experience of therapy

Offer clients coming to the end of their work an opportunity to swop letters with you, where you tell them your experience, and they tell you theirs

If the direct approach feels like too much, give clients a feedback form, or leave some in your reception area, where clients can return, either with their name, or anonymously

2.  Find out more about where new clients come from

Keep written track of inquiries and new client referrals

Ask phone and email inquirers where they got your name / contact details

Ask referrers where they got your name from

3. Get to know more about the financial and other statistics in your practice.

As you begin to grow awareness of these, and track them from month to month or year to year, you can see how the changes you make impact the results you achieve.

What is your average weekly / monthly income? (Take your total income for the year, and divide by the total number of weeks or months, not just the ones you worked. By the time you take account of short weeks, holidays and sick time, your average may be very different from what you thought.)

What is your average fee per session? (Take your total fee income for a period of an average week or month, and divide by the total number of client sessions or hours worked) You might think you know, but when account is taken of sessions cancelled, discounted or unpaid, it may be less than you think.

How long do clients stay on average? (For clients that finished during the year, count the total sessions, and divide by the relevant number of clients.)

4. Become aware of how your practice compares to others.

The 2013 IACP survey includes some interesting statistics about practices, which may surprise you!

Go to networking or CPD events, or meet with friends in the same field, and ask other practitioners how they’re getting on. Listen with an open mind, perhaps they have ideas that could help you?

There are lots of ways in which you can learn more about the business of therapy, and these are just a few. Choose just one, and try it out for a while, see how much you might learn. If you’d like some help in learning more about your business of therapy, email me here  to make an appointment or avail of your free 20 minute consultation.